Abstract
During exocytosis, chemical transmitters stored in secretory vesicles can be released upon fusion of these intracellular organelles to the plasma membrane. In this process, SNARE proteins that form a ternary core complex play a central role. This complex could provide the means for generation/storage of energy necessary for driving the fusion of vesicular and plasma membranes. Recently, the amount of energy for (dis)assembly of the ternary complex has been measured using various experimental approaches, including atomic force microscopy, the surface force apparatus, and isothermal titration calorimetry. The obtained measurements are in good agreement with the calculated energy required for membrane fusion achieved by theoretical modeling approaches. Whether the energy expenditure to form the ternary SNARE complex can be utilized towards membrane fusion and/or docking/tethering of vesicles to the plasma membrane still remains one of the key contemporary issues in biophysics and neuroscience.
Highlights
Fusion of secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane is thought to be mechanically driven by the interaction among the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein (NSF) attachment protein receptors (SNAREs)[1]
The experimentally obtained free energy of 20–35 kBT generated during theassembly of a single ternary SNARE complex[16,18,23] is similar to the amount of energy needed to cause hemi- or full fusion of two lipid bilayers based on theoretical modeling[10,11,13,14,15,31]
It appears that a minimal number of ternary SNARE complexes could generate a sufficient amount of energy to cause vesicular and plasma membrane fusion
Summary
Chemical transmitters stored in secretory vesicles can be released upon fusion of these intracellular organelles to the plasma membrane. In this process, SNARE proteins that form a ternary core complex play a central role. SNARE proteins that form a ternary core complex play a central role This complex could provide the means for generation/storage of energy necessary for driving the fusion of vesicular and plasma membranes. Whether the energy expenditure to form the ternary SNARE complex can be utilized towards membrane fusion and/or docking/tethering of vesicles to the plasma membrane still remains one of the key contemporary issues in biophysics and neuroscience
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